Mdcastle:
Traffic signals:1) The new Mn/DOT signals are going away from the green base, yellow pole, grey arm and light pole design in favor what looks like an unpainted metalic finish for the entire assembly, one of the new ones is at MN 77 and Shakopee Road. It kind of looks like unbrushed aluminum, but I would think that would be too expensive for signal poles.

2.) I also spotted a new Minneapolis style, at Franklin and East River Road. It looks like the heads are designed to be LED from the begining, they're too thin to hold an incandescent lamp, and the back looks to be a heatsink.

3.) Flashing Yellow Arrows are starting to spread, all the lights between US 212 and MN 5 on County 4 have been converted, Minnesota exclusively uses [a four lens assembly] for FYAs.

Speed limit on US 212 from the drop from 65 east of County 4 to just west of US 169 has been raised from 55 to 60.

There's somewhat of a spat about a garden variety overpass replacement. The Xerxes Ave "truck eating bridge" is going to be replaced in order to build a westbound auxillary lane between I-35W and MN 100. The original plan was to allow space in the I-494 median for future transit use, but realizing now that will be decades, if ever, the proposed Xerxes bridge will not accomodate that. Richfield is mad because they paid for extra ROW for the Penn project to accomodate that, and wants to be paid back. If they want to play nasty they could withold municipal consent and send it to binding arbitration.

In "how many people does it take not to change a light bulb" there was an ancient mercury fixture at 90th and 35W. I contacted Mn/DOT twice, The City of Bloomington twice, and XCEL Energy (which maintains city owned lighting) twice. In the end it turns out it was replaced by a pole across the road and missed getting removed, so it is now gone.

I'm seeing more and more rectanguler 3 digit rectangular sign blanks for state routes in the metro. I contacted Mn/DOT asking if it was a new standard, and they said "no, but we sometimes use on for certain digits that are hard to fit on a square blank like a '6'". However I've seen them for all numbers, including ones like 101 which they should have no trouble fitting, and unanswered is how they managed to fit them in the past since the present design dates from the 1960s. It does seem to vary, generally the rectangular ones are newer, but I saw a faded rectangular 101 in the middle of some new square 101s.

Also, a while ago I asked if there were any plans to change the design, and I was told officially no, but some of the engineer types would like to drop the gold and use white instead, since the gold tends to fade badly to the point they're almost white anyway. I think the blue and gold are beautiful on a green sign (and thus form the unofficial state colors) but they don't stay that way.

agentsteel53:

--- Quote from: Mdcastle on April 18, 2012, 07:54:36 PM ---it was replaced by a pole across the road and missed getting removed, so it is now gone.

--- End quote ---

could you please clarify this? if it was not removed, why is it gone?

adt1982:
I believe what he meant was that there were many of these lights. They were replaced by new poles on the opposite side of the road. This pole was not removed right after the new poles were installed, but it has since been removed.

agentsteel53:

--- Quote from: adt1982 on April 18, 2012, 10:24:34 PM ---I believe what he meant was that there were many of these lights. They were replaced by new poles on the opposite side of the road. This pole was not removed right after the new poles were installed, but it has since been removed.

--- End quote ---

gotcha, thanks!

twinsfan87:

--- Quote from: Mdcastle on April 18, 2012, 07:54:36 PM ---3.) Flashing Yellow Arrows are starting to spread, all the lights between US 212 and MN 5 on County 4 have been converted, Minnesota exclusively uses their standard 5 lens vertical head used for protected/permissive installations for FYAs.

--- End quote ---

I'm confused... why would they use a 5-section head for FYAs? I haven't been out to Eden Prairie for a while, so I'm not sure what they're doing out there, but the FYAs I've seen by MnDOT and Hennepin County are the standard 4-head vertical FYA signals.